Marion Kirk Jones(1921-2014):a Life

Marion Kirk was born in England, her family moving to Detroit in the U.S. in 1928, when she was seven years old. Pictured here is Marion seated to the right, in 1943 (at 15 years old) with fellow dancers at the world-renowned Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, in Massachusetts.

After two years of college she went to New York to study ballet and modern dance; during her life Marion often spoke of her time studying with dance legend Doris Humphrey, the woman who wrote the first official text on choreography, The Art of Making Dances. But Marion also studied with another dance great, Lester Horton, and it was his company that she joined. These experiences informed Marion's curiosity about movement that lasted throughout her long life. The solo photos here are very reminiscent of the work of Humphrey and Horton in the 1940s.

Marion was offered a teaching job at Cornell University, and it was there that destiny brought a young man named named Austin Jones into a record shop, telling the clerk there that he was a playwright, and was looking for a choreographer. And somehow he approached the young Miss Kirk, and said, "Are you a choreographer?" and she replied, "why, yes I am!" (And oh, was she ever, and always!). The two collaborated on the dance-drama that Austin wrote; the production was produced at the university's outdoor amphitheater. Below are publicity shots of Marion directing the dancers, and the cast laughing with Austin and Marion about their process.

Austin and Marion got married; they had two children: Elizabeth, and Cleve. Austin eventually accepted a job as a Professor of Psychology 1968 at Arizona State University, bringing the family there and starting anew. Marion was hired in the ASU's Dance Department, with the caveat that she pursue a higher degree, which she did, and earned her certificate in Labanotion, a scientific method of notating and recording dances, which she taught to her classes with gusto.

The life of Marion Jones: to be continued...​(and please, if you have stories to add, or facts to fix, please contact us!)